Wow, Maryland Courts Actually Rule In Favor of Privacy

and against the cops no less.

The state's highest court has invalidated the body search of a drug offender, effectively wiping out his conviction by ruling yesterday that police had not given him enough privacy when they checked a common drug-stashing location: between his buttocks.

Baltimore County detectives could have searched the Fallston man at a police station or "in the privacy of a police van," Judge Clayton Greene Jr. wrote for the majority of the Court of Appeals. Instead, a gloved investigator searched John August Paulino at night at the Dundalk carwash where he was arrested and where his friends who were with him might have seen.

Greene called the search unconstitutional and unreasonable, writing that it was not an emergency and should not have been done in public.

But Judge Lynne A. Battaglia, a former U.S. attorney for Maryland, disagreed, saying that the majority opinion ties the hands of police.

"By holding as it does, the majority impermissibly restricts the police's ability to conduct reasonable searches under the Fourth Amendment for drugs that are secreted on an individual known to be carrying such drugs to prevent their loss," she wrote in the dissent.

I do love how the dissent says that they already know the individual is carrying drugs. If that's true, why not just throw them in jail? What's the point of the search?

Anyway, the guy has already served six years of his wrongful 10-year sentence, and it's hard to have too much sympathy for a crack dealer (accidental pun not intended, but nonetheless mildly funny), but I'm glad that the Court does value privacy and the presumption of innocence even if only a little.

Kid H.

How the Government Stole Our Airwaves and why the FCC Sucks.

I'm so tired of hearing the FCC whine about the status of television. It has so little regard for free speech, free expression or just plain common sense, that I must admit I revel in the recent decision by the courts that prevents the FCC from fining stations when someone accidentally lets slip a bad word on live television.

The FCC isn't necessary at all. Frequencies should be owned by individuals. The only way the government should intervene is to enforce the property rights of the owners - much like you call the sherrif when someone trespasses on your lands.

Here is a little history of the FCC:

Radio voice broadcasts began in the US in November 1920, and within two years, there were 576 licensed broadcast stations.

In 1922, Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover initiated a series of annual radio conferences, attended by major broadcasters and orchestrated by the Department of Commerce. At the first such conference, L.R. Krumm of Westinghouse complained that it was "perfectly possible to establish a so-called broadcasting station for about $500 or $1000 initial investment." The programming from these upstarts consisted of "nothing but phonograph records, and that sort of station can interfere very disastrously with such a station as we are trying to operate." And just in case his meaning wasn't clear, Krumm added, "I believe 12 good stations, certainly a maximum of 15, would supply most of the needs of the country."

Hoover began to withhold additional licenses, claiming the need to prevent interference among broadcasters. A 1923 federal court case, Hoover v. Intercity Radio, denied him the authority to withhold licenses, but allowed the Secretary to select times and wavelengths so as to minimize interference.

For the next three years, Hoover continued to ration broadcasting licenses by assigning frequency, geographic location, and time of day (in keeping with the Intercity verdict), and even by refusing (in defiance of Intercity) to process new license applicants.

Hoover's annual broadcast conferences continued and in 1925 they outlined a policy agenda in which they advocated a "public interest" standard for licensing.

So you see, the FCC was really created to protect friends of the government from having to actually compete in the market. Read the whole article - it really is insightful and explains how Hoover, when his regulatory scheme was challenged, created chaos by refusing to protect the property rights of frequency owners. Now, the FCC must scream about indecency and about the lack of shows that are beneficial to our children and our national education because, if these things were really in demand, we wouldn't need the FCC (What kind of backwards logic is that?).

Here is a great quote that sums up the attitude of the censors and bureaucrats at the FCC:

If ever there was an appropriate time for Commission action, this was it. If we can’t restrict the use of the words 'fuck' and 'shit' during prime time, HOLLYWOOD will be able to say anything they want, whenever they want."

Wow. That guy really values free speech.

Kid H.

Link via Hit & Run

Germany adopts Stasi scent tactic

No - the entire world is not on a slippery slope to end civil liberties - or, of course, it might be. Check this out:

Sniffer dogs can use the collected odours to pick out individuals

The German authorities are compiling a database of human scents to track down possible violent protesters at the G8 summit in June.

The method, once used by East Germany's secret police, the Stasi, involves collecting scent samples in advance from selected targets.

The scents are then passed to police equipped with sniffer dogs who can pick the individuals out amid a crowd.

Past G8 summits have suffered serious unrest, which Germany is keen to avoid.

A state that adopts the methods of the East German Stasi, robs itself of every... legitimacy Petra Pau, opposition politician

The Interior Minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, has defended the authorities' decision to use scent tracking, saying it is a useful tool to identify suspects.

Kid H.

Link via Hit & Run

Forget going "off the grid." This guy's gone "on the grid," bigtime

This is some odd behavior, but it is pretty amusing. Brilliant as a work of social commentary . . . but a little scary too.

Hasan Elahi whips out his Samsung Pocket PC phone and shows me how he's keeping himself out of Guantanamo. He swivels the camera lens around and snaps a picture of the Manhattan Starbucks where we're dinking coffee. Then he squints and pecks at the phone's touchscreen. "OK! It's uploading now," says the cheery, 35-year-old artist and Rutgers professor, whose bleached-blond hair complements his fluorescent-green pants. "It'll go public in a few seconds. "Sure enough, a moment later the shot appears on the front page of his Web site, TrackingTransience.net.

There are already tons of pictures there. Elahi will post about a hundred today — the rooms he sat in, the food he ate, the coffees he ordered. Poke around his site and you'll find more than 20,000 images stretching back three years. Elahi has documented nearly every waking hour of his life during that time. He posts copies of every debit card transaction, so you can see what he bought, where, and when. A GPS device in his pocket reports his real-time physical location on a map .

Elahi's site is the perfect alibi. Or an audacious art project. Or both. The Bangladeshi-born American says the US government mistakenly listed him on its terrorist watch list — and once you're on, it's hard to get off. To convince the Feds of his innocence, Elahi has made his life an open book. Whenever they want, officials can go to his site and see where he is and what he's doing. Indeed, his server logs show hits from the

Pentagon, the Secretary of Defense, and the Executive Office of the President, among others.

Link via Boing Boing.

Kid H.

Thank you for saving me from myself . . . again

It seems you can't get firework ingredients anymore from this company. The link above shows how idiotic this is - even federally licensed dealers can't get these things. Here's the article about the case:

A federal judge in Boise has ruled in favor of the government in a lawsuit against an Internet retailer that sold ingredients used to make illegal fireworks.

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill has ordered Firefox Enterprises Inc., of Pocatello, to stop selling chemicals, tubes, end caps and fuses used in M-80s, quarter sticks and other illegal fireworks.

"This court ruling is a victory for consumer safety," Nancy Nord, acting chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission said Friday in a news release. "There are far too many injuries and deaths from the manufacture and use of illegal fireworks. By taking strong action against individuals and companies that sell chemicals and components to make these dangerous devices, CPSC can stop illegal fireworks from being made and keep consumers safe."

The commission said its investigation found that Firefox sold and shipped fireworks components in hundreds of transactions between November 1999 and May 2005. Winmill ruled that Firefox's packaging and shipping of chemicals violated the Federal Hazardous Substances Act and the Department of Transportation's Hazardous Materials Regulations.

Winmill granted summary judgment in favor of the government in December and made his order permanent Monday. He also imposed shipping and record keeping requirements and authorized the commission to make surprise inspections of Firefox.

Deaths, injuries and property damage from consumer-product incidents cost the nation more than $700 billion annually, the agency said.

First, I'm sick of how legislators dismiss the slippery slope idea when it comes to passing legislation to protect people, while in the same breath banning this product or that one because "it could be possibly maybe used in some negative fashion." Hell, fire takes oxygen to burn, when is Congress or some dumbass court going to ban air?

Also look at the last weasely qote above (I put it in italics for you). What does that have to do with the issue at hand? Nothing. I mean, if you damage your house because your washing machine overflowed, that's included in that number. How stupid does the government think we are? Oh . . . I forgot . . . they think we're very stupid . . . because we keep letting them get away with this crap.

This just confirms one of my theories: nothing good ever comes out of Boise.

Kid H.

P.S. If they're just worried about the wrong people getting their hands on this stuff, way to drive those people underground and make them more difficult to trace. Good job guys. Keep up the mediocre to below average work.

Montgomery County, MD is first county to Ban Trans-Fats

Wow. If the city council had only banned idiots first, then we'd never have fun legislation like this.

The Montgomery County Council unanimously approved a ban on partially hydrogenated oils in restaurants, supermarket bakeries and delis yesterday, becoming the first county in the nation to restrict artery-clogging trans fats.

The pride factor of being the first county to ban transfats is probably causing dancing in the streets down in Rockville.

The Montgomery regulation could have a broader reach because of the county's sweeping definition of what it means to be in the business of serving food. Religious establishments, schools and grocery store salad bars are subject to the county's regulation.

Sweet, there goes your local bake sales to raise money. Bye bye scrumptious church dinners. Seriously, how is this supposed to be a real benefit to us? Regular fats, for lack of a better term, aren't much healthier (if at all) than transfats - and transfats might taste better (depending on your personal tastes). Don't think about that question too hard, the government is here to provide us the answer.

Council member Duchy Trachtenberg (D-At Large), the bill's chief sponsor, said she thinks the food industry will be able to adjust. Some Montgomery establishments, such as the Silver Diner and Marriott Corp., stopped using trans fats voluntarily.

"The goal is to protect the public health," she said. "People want to know what they are eating."

What a crock! People probably do want to know what they're eating Duchy (and isn't that name rife with irony). However, you idiots are telling people that it doesn't matter if they know what they're eating - they still can't have it.

Gene Wilkes, owner of Tastee Diners in Bethesda and Silver Spring, said the ban will force him to eliminate certain items, such as lemon meringue pie and chocolate cream pie, which he buys from a supplier. His popular biscuits, made in bulk at the diners from a General Mills mix that contains trans fats, will be a no-no. He said he'll begin making them from scratch, most likely.

Wilkes said he has begun to use healthier oil for deep-frying and grilling. And soon, butter, not less costly margarine, will be on the hundreds of pieces of toast his 24-hour establishments serve each day. But he is annoyed about the treatment of packaged foods.

Wow, it's not like butter is a super-healthy alternative. Plus, this ban eliminates two awesome pies. "Restaurateurs say that it could be difficult for them to find healthy replacements for trans fatty oils and that they might have to use artery-clogging palm and coconut oils or butter."

Listen folks, it isn't about making us more healthy. It isn't about junk science or anything like that. It's about local legislators that must appear to be doing something, anything, to justify their continued existence. When these guys run out of actual important issues to deal with, or they can't find the answer, they always, always, always end up doing something idiotic either for the general well-being of the public (like it or not), or for the children.

Let's start looking at this type of legislation for what it is. It isn't just authoritarianism or nanny-statism (though it is those things). It is something that verges on communism. The ultimate goal is to make everyone the same, only they can't call it communism or even socialism, so they just keep eliminating all our choices and our liberties until eventually the choices we get to make are the same exact choices everyone gets to make . . . and those aren't really choices at all.

You think I'm kidding or maybe going overboard? Well, now you can't have transfats or foie-gras. You can't buy toilets that really work anymore, washing machines are 35% more efficient and who knows how much less effective, CAFE standards mean you can't really get the car you might want, soon you won't be able to buy lightbulbs that don't give you headaches, you can't use ephedra to lose weight (or use in tea like the Mormons), you can't smoke, you can't drink the liquor you want in the way you want, you can't build many types of model rockets, you can't really own and carry a gun. Seriously, I could go on all day. I'll say this, unless you're Bill Gates or Donald Trump, etc., I'm willing to bet that your house isn't big enough to store the entire Code of Federal Regulations - then add in the state and local stuff, yet somehow, you're supposed to know all this stuff and abide by it. And, lest you forget, those codes ain't getting any smaller.

Kid H.

Link via this post at Hit & Run.

Also thanks to commenter John on that post for getting my list started.

PATRIOT Act - the view from 5 years later

Interesting article on some of the failures of the Patriot Act, which I've criticized from day one. I know 911 was a terrible event, and I was all for exacting retribution, but it was painfully obvious that the PATRIOT Act was a naked power grab by the government. Anyway, there were some who criticized it initially and discussed potential abuses. Here is an excerpt from a longer article assessing some of the initial criticisms (they were right).

In March 2007, FBI Inspector General Glenn Fine released a report that undermined that argument. It turned out the bureau had underreported the number of requests for National Security Letters, had issued letters before exhausting other options, and had issued them to Americans who were not the targets of ongoing investigations. In short, the FBI had abused its new powers.

“That vindicated my concerns over that provision of the PATRIOT Act,” says Sen. Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican who had joined Sununu and most Democrats in the 2005 filibuster. “Not because I have reason to believe that FBI agents were acting with ill intent, but it does show that we shouldn’t create shortcuts when it comes to civil rights. Mistakes will, and did, happen.”

That scandal was soon chased from the headlines by something even more incendiary: The White House had fired eight competent U.S. attorneys for, among other things, not working hard enough to prosecute Democrats. Washington State’s John McKay hadn’t dug into claims of Democratic voter fraud in a governor’s race; New Mexico’s David Iglesias, the model for Tom Cruise’s character in A Few Good Men, wasn’t willing to rush an indictment against a Democratic state senator before an election. And the power that let the president replace them with cronies was enshrined in the PATRIOT Act.

Presidents had always set up a revolving door for the U.S. attorneys at the starts of their terms, and they had the right to shuffle them out and nominate new blood at any time. But PATRIOT effectively eliminated Congress’ role in approving those replacements, by removing restrictions on the length of service for interim U.S. attorneys and allowed them to serve indefinitely without confirmation by the Senate. As first liberals, then conservatives started calling for the attorney general to fall on his sword, the Senate voted to strip the president of that power.

It took its time, but the political class has finally lost confidence in its belief that the government had done the right things to secure America after 9/11. As scandal piled on top of scandal, it became harder, then impossible, to deny that the powers granted to the executive could be abused by some corrupt actors or by agencies enamored of their own secrecy.

This impacts the way Washingtonians play out the decade’s big hypothetical scenario: What happens if we get hit again? How will politics change after another 9/11? The thinking had been that politics would pivot right back to the frenzied “whatever my government wants” attitude of 2001. But the validation of civil libertarians’ fears has changed all that.

“This is a case where I can say ‘I was right all along,’ ” says Sununu. “But I am not happy about it.”

KH

Sick to my stomach

I know no one really reads this site. I know I'm not really doing anything by posting here, BUT it makes me feel that way (maybe I am a liberal after all).... but I need to let someone, anyone else know about this disgusting shit the government is doing to us...

A kid builds a 3d map of his school for a 3d game. Teachers find out. Tell the FUCKING POLICE. They arrest him. The find a WEAPON in his house... A FUCKING HAMMER.... Then they ship him off to a FUCKING RE-EDUCATION CAMP!!!!!

IN AMERICA!!!!!!

WHAT CRIME DID HE COMMIT??????

I feel like I'm going to vomit.

Otter

Story was Slashdotted...
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Chinese Community Rallies Behind Student Removed From Clements
by Bob Dunn, Apr 30, 2007, 11 57 am

Members of the area Chinese community have rallied behind a Clements High School senior who was removed from the campus and sent to M.R. Wood Alternative Education Center after parents complained he'd created a computer game map of Clements.

About 70 people attended the Fort Bend Independent School District's April 23 meeting to show support for the Clements senior and his mother, Jean Lin, who spoke to FBISD Board trustees in a closed session.

While an agenda document does not specify details, the board is holding a special meeting tonight to address the boy's actions and the discipline that was meted out as a result, sources close to the matter say. The boy's name was not identified last week, and the district has declined to discuss his case.

Richard Chen, president of the Fort Bend Chinese-American Voters League and a acquaintance of the boy's family, said he is a talented student who enjoys computer games and learned how to create maps (also sometimes known as "mods"), which provide new environments in which games may be played.

The map the boy designed mimicked Clements High School. And, sources said, it was uploaded either to the boy's home computer or to a computer server where he and his friends could access and play on it. Two parents apparently learned from their children about the existence of the game, and complained to FBISD administrators, who investigated.

"They arrested him," Chen said of FBISD police, "and also went to the house to search." The Lin family consented to the search, and a hammer was found in the boy's room, which he used to fix his bed, because it wasn't in good shape, Chen said. He indicated police seized the hammer as a potential weapon.

"They decided he was a terroristic threat," said one source close to the district's investigation.

Sources said that although no charges were filed against the boy, he was removed from Clements, sent to the district's alternate education school and won't be allowed to participate in graduation ceremonies with classmates.

"All he did was create a map and put it on a web site to allow students to play," Chen said. "The mother thinks this is too harsh."

FBISD officials declined to comment on the matter Monday. "Our challenge is, people in the community have freedom of speech and can say what they want, but we have laws" covering privacy issues, especially involving minors, that the district has to respect, said spokeswoman Nancy Porter.

Speakers at the FBISD Board's April 23 meeting alluded to the Clements senior's punishment, and drew a connection to the April 16 shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, in which a Korean student shot and killed 32 people.

The Asian community "faces new pressures" as a result of the shootings, William Sun told board members. "We urge the school and community not to label our Asian students as terrorists."

"We should teach our children not to judge others harshly" and not to target people as being a threat because of their race, said Peter Woo, adding that the school district should lead the way in such efforts.

But Chen said Monday he and other community members don't consider FBISD's actions in the case to be racially motivated, and don't think they blew the incident out of proportion.

"They all think the principal has to do something - but how much? We do understand with the Virginia Tech incident...something has to be done," Chen said. "Someone just made a mistake, and we think the principal should understand that."

It's really in your best interests . . . really

If protecting you from terrorists means breaking into your home, copying your hard drive, tapping your phones, maybe even planting a hidden camera in your shower stall, that’s the price you pay for freedom, right? You wouldn’t want your protector slowed down by something pesky like, say, a warrant or probable cause — because then the terrorists win. You do see, don’t you? If not, President Bush's National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, who oversees all 16 U.S. spy agencies, might be able to arrange a long vacation in a tropical paradise.

McConnell is circulating proposed legislative changes that would give the spy chief’s 100,000 employees the powers to spy on you more easily— for your own good:

Heh. Indeed (wait, is that trademarked?)

Kid Handsome

Another Isolated Incident

Thanks to the Agitator for the link.

MANSFIELD -- A law enforcement SWAT team did not announce itself before the deadly shootout Feb. 28 at 2619 Park Avenue East, a Cincinnati attorney representing the Gilbert Rush Jr. family said Wednesday.

Al Gerhardstein said the family is investigating a civil rights lawsuit stemming from the late-night raid.

"They did not knock and announce," he said. "The family thought they were being invaded."

But Mansfield police Chief Phil Messer defended members of the Allied Special Operations Response Team, saying they did nothing wrong.
"I've reviewed the procedures," he said. "It does look like they did follow departmental policy."

Police have said Rush, 49, fired one shot from inside his kitchen, triggering the fatal response. He was hit twice in the chest.

According to the search warrant, police were seeking property from a retail theft ring, firearms and illegally possessed prescription drugs.

"You're supposed to knock and announce and give the family a reasonable amount of time to respond," Gerhardstein said.

Messer said that is not always the case.

"It is our policy to announce unless we have a no-knock search warrant or there are other (extenuating) circumstances," Messer said.

Gerhardstein said he has researched other local ASORT cases.

"If that's their policy, we've found numerous examples where they haven't followed it," he said.

They never recognize that their policies are to blame. The Nazi's followed policy too (yes, yes, Godwin's law, but that's different).

Also, from this post at the Agitator, we see it gets even worse. See, the armed raid of this guy's house was for . . . wait for it . . . it isn't drugs . . . it isn't guns . . . it isn't kidnapping . . . it wasn't a hostage situation . . . it was for:

All of this in itself would be yet another anecdote against the use of these raids for nonviolent crimes (the retail thefts were the driving force behind the investigation).

Ah, but it gets worse. Rush himself wasn't even a suspect. The police were after members of his family. Rush had no criminal record, and wasn't suspected of any crime. He heard and saw men with guns breaking into his home. So he defended his home. And now he's dead.

I don't know if Mr. Rush was complicit in any retail theft conspiracy or not. I do know that if he was, he shouldn't have received a death sentence. That's what he got.

Yep. The instant death penalty. Just like too many others.

Kid Handsome

Otter Hates Hugo Chavez

CARACAS: Many Venezuelans shrug off President Hugo Chavez's calls to create a new man through socialist revolution.

But a decree limiting alcohol sales for much of Holy Week has got their attention.

"Don't Mess With My Hooch!" blared the main headline in yesterday's El Nuevo Pais tabloid.

The Chavez Government says the law is necessary to diminish the fatalities from drink-driving, but that hasn't stopped the protests.

On Margarita Island, revellers and liquor store owners painted car windshields with the words "No to the Dry Law".

The sharp reactions to the alcohol curb is in stark contrast to the lack of interest that greeted corruption scandals over attempts by Venezualan Supreme Court judges to avoid paying income tax on their bonuses, and claims government officials illegally siphoned off millions from state infrastructure deals with Iran.

"I've been in this country 40 years, and this is the first time I've seen this," said Antonio Gouveia, 54, a Portuguese immigrant who owns a bar.

"Holy Week is the best week of the year because people don't work, they go out and spend."

Mr Gouveia described the curb on alcohol sales as "something for madmen".

Mr Chavez, a teetotaller, appears to have touched a nerve with the decree, which initially confused many people and caught them off-guard.

Kid Handsome - link via To the People

We don't seem to be much different (see below post)

I always ask, who decided that the Government owned the airwaves? If you don't like what's on television, don't watch it. It's really not that hard to do. People do it every day when they tune into one show instead of another show, or get some cable channels but not others. The airwaves are just a frequency - a property that can be owned by an individual corporation. If there is interference with the frequency, a private owner can petition the courts for redress. It's really that easy. Now we get this:

An upcoming FCC report recommending steps that Congress can take to regulate television violence has sharply divided the agency’s five members.

Multiple sources said Republican Chairman Kevin Martin and Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps, who are spearheading the crackdown on graphic scenes, had approved the latest version of the report.

But GOP Commissioner Robert McDowell and Democratic Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein are apprehensive about intervening in this area, and it is unclear whether they are onboard, sources said.

Republican Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate is expected to approve the findings, although her office did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

Further complicating matters, minority groups recently complained about language in the report endorsing per channel cable pricing, known as a la carte.

The discord may explain why the document, requested by 39 House lawmakers in 2004 and the subject of speculation for weeks, is not ready — although some observers expect it soon.

The report concludes that Congress can regulate violent TV images without compromising the First Amendment. It has created some unusual alliances — teaming Martin and Copps, who are often at odds, while dividing Copps and Adelstein, who normally move in lockstep.

How is it that the government can do this without interfering with First Amendment rights? Oh yeah, it's the government, it can do whatever it wants. I want more violence on television, who are you to command by government mandate that I can't have it?

Kid Handsome

Link via Hit & Run

Tony Blair hasn't seen Serenity*

Could England get any worse? Seriously, if we have any overseas readers (or more than three or four) can you explain how you have grown so weak in the face of government. Check out this "secret plan," bunch of idiotic bastards:

Babies could be vaccinated with brain-altering chemicals to stop them getting hooked on drugs and cigarettes in later life.

Newborns would have jabs which could prevent addiction to cocaine, heroin or tobacco, under secret Downing Street plans.

Details of the extraordinary proposal to stop the annual £20 billion cost of drug misuse are in a leaked No 10 policy document.

Scientists have already developed a drug called naltrexone that eases heroin withdrawal symptoms. A cocaine vaccine called TA-CD has now been developed, the document says.

Ministers could also crack down on drug dens by having the post scanned for supplies using modern technology, while police helicopters would use revolutionary laser radar systems to test the air for chemicals used to make drugs.

The document, reportedly being considered by Tony Blair's working group on crime, talks of "immunotherapies" developed in secret to protect a generation.

It says: "A young person could be immunised and the drugs would never reach or affect the brain. Drug-related crimes could be reduced if vaccines can be successfully developed to reduce the craving."

Also, babies would have "jabs?" That's your word?

I love government imposed utopias. Seriously, is Joss Whedon writing their proposed legislation so that he can get a sequel to Serentity made? I can't imagine a legitimate reason to potentially subject babies brains to vaccinations that we don't know the potential effects of. Maybe the babies won't crave drugs, but they also won't crave getting up in the morning or studying or anything really.

Kid Handsome

Link via To The People

* A brief explanation of the title. In Serenity, Joss Whedon created a plot whereby the ruling government secretly put a pacification drug in the air on a newly colonized planet. The citizens on that planet, after breathing in the chemical mostly laid down and died. On about a tenth of the population, the drug had the opposite effect, creating a vast number of people who were hyper-agressive. It's a good movie. You should buy it.

DCMA Abuser gets schooled, literally

This guy, Michael Crook, kept filing ridiculous claims under the DCMA forcing people in many cases to remove materials from their websites.

Here is the release from the Electronic Fronteir Foundation:

DMCA Abuser Apologizes for Takedown Campaign

Michael Crook Agrees to Stop Attacks on Free Speech

San Francisco - Michael Crook, the man behind a string of meritless online copyright complaints, has agreed to withdraw those complaints, take a copyright law course, and apologize for interfering with the free speech rights of his targets.

The agreement settles a lawsuit against Crook filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on behalf of Jeff Diehl, the editor of the Internet magazine 10 Zen Monkeys. Diehl was forced to modify an article posted about Crook's behavior in a fake sex-ad scheme after Crook sent baseless Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices, claiming to be the copyright holder of an image used in the story. In fact, the image was from a Fox News program and legally used as part of commentary on Crook. But Crook repeated his claims and then attempted to use the same process to get the image removed from other websites reporting on his takedown campaign.

"Crook's legal threats interfered with legitimate debate about his controversial online behavior," said EFF Staff Attorney Jason Schultz. "Public figures must not be allowed to use bogus copyright claims to squelch speech."

If you ask me, it's pretty hilarious that they actually made him take a class.

Kid Handsome